On the language and style of the book “Twenty-two days from F. M. Dostoevsky’s life (Kuznetsk, 1856-1857)” by A. S. Shadrina: on the elitist linguistic personality in the local history discourse

The book “Twenty-two days in the life of F. M. Dostoevsky (Kuznetsk, 1856-1857)” written by Albina Stepanovna Shadrina, an art historian and local history expert, is related to a local historical dominant of the Southern Kuzbass sociocultural space, embodied in artistic, journalistic, advertising, and scientific texts. The paper provides the results of semantic and stylistic analysis of the book, revealing how an elitist linguistic personality manifests itself in the local history discourse. The image of the author is depicted by examining evaluative and emotionally expressive contexts and means, with the cognitive and discursive basis for their use being the memorial and local history function. A stylistic basis of A. S. Shadrina’s work is the popular science substyle. Emotional and expressive means actualize the characteristics important for the author and the course of the argumentation. S. Shadrina’s argument is characterized by a humanistic message, attention to the writer’s personality, and focus on psychological and ethical issues. Her goal is not only to represent the story of Dostoevsky’s “fearsome feeling” but also to study the life of Kuznetsk of that period, with special attention to the moral aspects. The book highlights axiological ideas connected with the activity of a local historian, with a focus on the novelty and perspectives of the research, the importance of archival work. The methodological approach, explicated in the evaluative contexts, is based on working with reliable sources and the unacceptability of free subjective interpretations of the facts.

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